A Dog's Life

Each time I've welcomed a new puppy into my life I've made a promise to him or her. I promise to give them a safe home, to love them, to allow them to be a dog and when the time comes I will be there with them as they die.

I feel safe in assuming that anyone reading this loves their pets and wants to give them good lives. At some time each of us will face the illness or simply the aging out of our pet and we all have to deal with it in our own way. I've faced that situation more times than I care to think about and will face it again sooner or hopefully later.

When our pet gets sick we all have to consider our options. There are many considerations, the illness involved, the age and condition of the pet, but there are others that we don't like to think about. We have to be honest and consider our finances and our time restrictions.

If the pet needs constant attention, help in eating and help in standing and walking, someone with a full time job and a family may simply not be able to give the animal the attention it needs. Veterinary medicine has made enormous strides in recent years, but can you afford to keep your animal alive indefinitely  on life support. If you can afford it, do you really want to do it?

Everyone has their own criteria for making the decision to end their pet's life. Mine has always been a quality of life issue. When my dog can no longer enjoy his life, it's time for me to pull myself together and say goodbye.

Using Morgan as an example, she can no longer chase squirrels, one of her favorite things in life, because of her arthritis, knee problems and poor eyesight. Is it time to say goodbye to Morgan? No, because Morgan is still enjoying being a dog. She can't run after squirrels and bunnies, but she can meander around the yard sniffing out their trails. She can bark at them when she sees them and she has adapted to her physical condition.

Tsar was a different story. Very quickly it became impossible for him to move on his own and do the things he most enjoyed. There were options we chose not to take, such as extensive testing that might have kept him alive longer, but would not have improved the quality of his life. Just because you can do something, doesn't necessarily mean you should do it. Keeping Tsar alive in his condition would have been a selfish act on my part. Did I want to lose him? Of course not, but it's my responsibility to make the hard decisions whether I like them or not.

My vet and I have had this conversation a number of times. I tell him that he's my backup conscience. I depend on him to be honest with me and tell me when it's time if I'm too clouded by emotion to recognize it. He's always been supportive and I know I can count on him not to prolong my dog's life beyond the time we should.

I don't know if Samba's latest setback will have a happy outcome or not, but I  am fully aware that I have to accept responsibility whatever comes. I consider it an act of love.